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Film studio funding setback 'not end of project'

Andy Watson
BBC News, North East and Cumbria
Reporting fromSunderland
BBC Kim McGuinness, who has long blonde hair, stands on the banks of the River Tyne, she is dressed in a beige suit with a gold medallion necklace hanging from her neck.BBC
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness says she is "confident" other investors will be found for Crown Works Studio

Building work will "continue as normal" on a multimillion-pound film and TV studio despite a key investor backing out, a mayor has said.

Real estate firm Cain International said it had withdrawn from the Crown Works Studios project in Sunderland but declined to go into more detail.

Labour's North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said: "Work is already under way and we're committed to delivering Crown Works, but we know that we can find new investors."

Work on the site began earlier this year, with the government providing £25m through devolution funding, and Sunderland City Council and the North East Combined Authority (NECA) committing to about £120m.

The development, on the former shipyard site in Pallion, next to the Northern Spire Bridge, is expected to create thousands of jobs.

4D STUDIO ARCHITECTS An artist's imagining of the Crown Works Studios project in Sunderland. It will be based near the Northern Spire Bridge on Wearside, on the banks of the River Wear. 4D STUDIO ARCHITECTS
The studios are planned to be built on the banks of the River Wear

Funding for the rest of the scheme was expected to come from a joint venture between Fulwell Entertainment and Cain, which had intended on building 19 sound stages at the riverside site.

Alison Gwynn, head of North East Screen, said: "We know we have support from central and regional government, one investor may be out but this is a chance to find the right investor."

The organisation said there had been a 131% increase in the number of productions filmed in the region over the past three years and it was "confident" the site would be up and running by 2027.

Alison Gwynn, Chief Executive of North East Screen, stands at a building site for the Crown Works Studios site in Sunderland. She is wearing wide framed glasses and dressed in a navy and white dress with a gold necklace.
Alison Gwynn, of North East Screen, says it is a "new opportunity" for investment

"This isn't all doom and gloom, the groundworks are happening right now, construction is due to start in January - this is going to happen, we are really confident," Ms Gwynn said.

Phase one of the project would see four sound stages built on the site, with an aim of getting more built in further phases if the studio "proved" to be commercially viable.

'Grit and determination'

Fulwell Entertainment, which is behind the Netflix football documentary Sunderland 'Til I Die, said it "remains committed to working with the council to find appropriate private funding, complementing the combined North East authority and wider government funding needed to make these world-class production studios a reality".

Labour-led Sunderland City Council said the proposals were "being presented to the investment market, with the aim to put in place a final funder and developer later this year".

Lewis Atkinson, Labour MP for Sunderland Central, said the development was a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to put Sunderland at the heart of the UK's creative economy" and that the city was "absolutely determined to seize it".

Rob Lawson, chair of Sunderland Business Partnership, a collective of the region's businesses and organisations, said it was important to support the efforts of the council as it searched for new investment.

"Sunderland is a city of grit and determination – a place that digs in and delivers through adversity," he added.

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